Georgia's law enforcement agencies are facing a mounting...

Editor's note: ...scandal over blatant abuse of Flock Safety's license plate reader network, with officers treating a public safety tool as their personal stalking apparatus. In Bibb County, three former deputies, Coznavian Stubbs, Joseph Callaway, and Toni Lewis, were criminally charged after an internal audit found they exploited the system to track people they had personal relationships with. In Fayetteville, three more officers were fired for running searches on their own license plates or those of people they knew, while Savannah terminated four sworn officers and two civilian employees for running unauthorized searches on acquaintances and family members, with one officer even handing outside access to someone unauthorized to have it.

These are not isolated lapses; reports indicate at least 17 Georgia officers have been implicated in Flock misuse in just the past couple of months, part of a nationwide pattern in which officers have used this surveillance technology to stalk romantic partners, exes, and other private citizens. That officers sworn to uphold the law would so casually weaponize a mass surveillance system for personal vendettas and stalking is a profound betrayal of public trust, and it exposes the reckless lack of oversight built into these Flock surveillance camera networks from the start.

Flock's license plate reader network must be dismantled entirely, because no amount of policy or auditing can undo the fundamental danger of putting a real time tracking tool for every vehicle in a community into the hands of people who can and repeatedly do abuse it. When an officer with unsupervised access can locate an ex-partner, a domestic violence victim in hiding, or anyone else at will, that is not a minor policy failure, it is a loaded weapon handed to whoever wants to use it for harassment, blackmail, or worse. A victim who has fled an abuser and believes herself safe can be found in seconds by someone with a badge and a grudge, and the same data that reveals where she sleeps, works, or picks up her kids could just as easily be leveraged to extort her into silence or lead a predator straight to her door.

Reforms and audits only catch abuse after the fact, once the damage of being tracked, threatened, or worse is already done, and that is not an acceptable price for a surveillance apparatus that was never voted on by the people whose every movement it records. A tool this powerful, this easily weaponized, and this consistently abused by the very officers meant to protect the public has no place standing on our streets, and the only responsible answer is to tear it down. DeKalb deputy charged with Flock camera misuse; more Georgia officers fired

If municipalities insist on operating a data collection apparatus that captures the movements of every resident who never consented to being tracked, then residents should treat that data as their property and demand compensation for its extraction, the same way any company would be forced to pay for use of a person's image, voice, or personal information under existing data privacy and right of publicity frameworks. Communities could organize to send formal notices and invoices to their local police departments and city councils asserting a claim for the commercial value of their license plate and location data, arguing that continuous surveillance without compensation is not that different from a company harvesting biometric data without consent, an area where courts have increasingly sided with individuals demanding payment or damages. See Automated number plate recognition cameras are being used for data laundering.

Even if municipalities refuse to pay, mass, coordinated invoicing creates a paper trail of formal legal claims, generates public pressure, media attention, and a foundation for class action litigation, and forces local governments to publicly justify why they believe they're entitled to harvest and store private citizens' movements for free. No exceptions, no carve outs for "public safety," because the moment municipalities are made to reckon with the true cost, financial and political, of surveilling their own residents, they will be forced to either compensate people fairly or shut the system down.

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Fayetteville police terminated three officers after an audit of its surveillance system technology.

By Shaddi Abusaid and Ellen Rolfes | July 18, 2026

A DeKalb County Sheriff’s Office deputy has been fired and also faces criminal charges after authorities said he misused the agency's license plate reader system.

Additionally, three Fayetteville police officers are out of a job after the department said Friday they looked up their own tag numbers or those belonging to people they know.

They join a growing list of Georgia law enforcement officers who have recently been terminated or criminally charged for allegedly misusing the widespread surveillance technology.

In DeKalb, former Sgt. Kabiru Salawu, a nearly 17-year sheriff’s office veteran, was arrested Friday and charged with a felony violation of oath by a public officer and misuse of license plate data, a misdemeanor, according to the agency.

Paywall on this source.

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More:

Automated number plate recognition cameras are being used for data laundering

To: Municipal governments deploying Flock cameras

Franz Kafka knew bureaucracy from the inside.

The following is a sample invoice you can send to your local police departments and municipal governments:

 

NOTICE OF CLAIM & INVOICE

For Unauthorized Commercial Collection of Private License Plate & Location Data

FROM:
[Your Full Name]
[Your Street Address]
[City, State, ZIP]
[Email / Phone]

TO:
[Police Department / City Council Name]
[Department Address]
[City, State, ZIP]

DATE: [Date]
INVOICE #: [Unique reference number, e.g. FLOCK-2026-001]

STATEMENT OF CLAIM

I am a resident of [City/County], and I am formally notifying your department that I have not consented to the collection, storage, or use of my vehicle's license plate, location, and movement data by Flock Safety cameras or any similar automated license plate reader (ALPR) system operated or contracted by your agency.

This data constitutes private, personally identifying information about my whereabouts and movements. Its ongoing collection without my consent and without compensation represents an extraction of value from me for which I have received nothing in return. I am therefore submitting this invoice as a formal record of my objection and my claim for compensation, and as notice that I do not consent to further collection absent payment or removal of the system.

Description	Est. Scans	Amount
Unauthorized collection of license plate data (per scan, public roadway)	[# scans or "unknown — see note"]	$[X.XX] x scans
Storage and retention of personal location data without consent (flat annual fee)	—	$[X,XXX.00]
Third-party data sharing / potential resale exposure fee	—	$[X,XXX.00]
TOTAL DUE		$[TOTAL]

NOTE ON PRICING:
There is currently no established legal rate for this data. The figures above are illustrative placeholders meant to reflect the real value of continuous, non-consensual tracking; senders should choose a reasonable, consistent figure across their community rather than an arbitrary one, and should understand this invoice is a form of formal protest and public record, not an enforceable bill under current law.

DEMAND

I respectfully but firmly demand that your department either (1) remit payment for the data collected as itemized above, (2) provide a full accounting of what data has been collected on my vehicle, how it has been used, and with whom it has been shared, or (3) discontinue collection of my data and remove any ALPR/Flock camera infrastructure capturing my movements on public roads I regularly travel.

I am submitting this notice as part of a broader, coordinated effort among residents in this community and across the country who object to non-consensual mass surveillance of private citizens. I expect a written response within 30 days of the date above.

Sincerely,

_____________________________
[Signature]
[Printed Name]
[Date]